


One Two Three

by Miniatures



Series: Archunters Verse [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Child Death, Gen, Horror, how they get their start as hunters, rugarus, rugarus are terrifying don't lie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 07:11:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2842493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miniatures/pseuds/Miniatures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen hours since their parents left the house. Six. Seven. Eight since they’d said they’d be home. Michael says the monsters took them, and he will make his brothers believe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Two Three

Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen hours since their parents left the house. Six. Seven. Eight since they’d said they’d be home. At the latest.

Gabriel rolled over, counted seconds in his head. Tangled his limbs in the sheets and faced the wide cotton-clad swath of Raphael’s back, nebulous grey in the dark. _Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen._

They were up to multiplication in Ms. Furney’s class, and Gabriel was good at it. He was good because he counted, and he counted because his father had told him it was a good way to calm down. Parse out the time, little pockets of nothing instead of a spread of stress or anger or fear. His mother had said they would pick up cupcakes on their way home. He’d been waiting for his parents, for those cupcakes for thirteen hours by the clock and twenty-nine seconds by his own counting.

“Thirty,” he said under his breath.

Raph stirred, curled an arm behind himself and swatted lazy at Gabriel. “Shut up.”

“‘M jus’ counting…”

 _“Shut up,_ Gabe, ‘m tryin’ to sleep.”

Gabriel breathed a low sigh. Curled his fingers in the hem of Raph’s shirt like he’d done when he was little— _not little anymore, too big to be a baby_ —and hadn’t wanted to fall behind his brothers. Let Raph drag him along as he followed Luce and Mike on much longer legs.

Raph squirmed out of his brother’s grasp. Gabriel’s fingers unraveled, clenched again around air.

“Where d’you think they are?” he murmured.

“I don’t _know,_ Gabe. Go to sleep.”

“Mom said she’d call us if they wasn’t gonna be home for dinner.”

Raph rolled over to face Gabriel. Eyes bruised and hollow in the neon glow of the alarm clock.

“Mike’s looking,” he said. “He’ll find them. It’ll be okay, got it? Jus’ go to sleep.”

Gabriel nodded. Raph wasn’t usually so soft with him. He must’ve been serious; he had the same hard set to his jaw that Michael did when he scooped the car keys off the ring, run out into the cold and dark. Raph had a lot of the same things Michael did—the same dark hair, dark eyes, sallow looks, and tendency to curl into himself, away from the world. But tonight Raph was soft and Michael was out panicking— _not panicking, in control, big brother’s got it covered, Gabe—_ and that had to mean something. Something bad.

Thirteen hours.

—

Gabriel slipped into the dark, and Luce shook him out of it. Peering down with wide blue eyes, overhead lights gleaming a halo into his blond hair.

“Gabe, c’mon, get up. Mike’s back.”

Gabriel slipped his hand into Luce’s, his brother’s palm tacky and cool. Let Luce lead him out into the living room. Raphael was curled sleepy on their father’s favourite armchair, Michael pacing the length of the room, eyes gleaming manic.

“Sit down,” he mumbled. Luce sat on the couch, Gabriel clambering up to join him. The older boy was not affectionate as a rule, too detached at fifteen to bother with his baby brother. But tonight he gathered Gabriel into his lap, wrapped his arms around his middle and pulled him close. Gabriel resumed counting in his head. This was bad, it _had_ to be something bad.

Michael stopped pacing, drew himself up. “They’re not coming back.”

“What’re you talking about?” Luce’s voice was raw in Gabriel’s ear. “You can’t find them?”

“I mean they’re _gone,_ Lucifer. Something got them in the woods.”

“Like a bear, or a—”

“Don’t be stupid.” Michael shook his head. “Something _else._ And you all know what.”

Gabriel knew. Mike talked about _something else_ all the time, dark things and whispers and hollow spaces. Said they pulled at him. Luce rolled his eyes about it, but Raph defended his eldest brother without question. Gabriel said nothing, though he preferred to believe that the corners of his room were clotted with shadows, not monsters. Even if Michael could be horrifically convincing sometimes.

The windows were dark. Gabriel leaned into Luce’s warmth and tried not to look out them.

“You’re fucking crazy, Mike,” Luce muttered. “They’re just _lost,_ okay? We’ll find them.”

Michael’s eyes flashed. “Don’t call me crazy.”

“What, you think some weird shit got him? Like what, a freaking goblin? Mike, we have to call the cops, mom and dad are _missing.”_

“Luce.” Michael strode forward and loomed over his brother, hardly sparing Gabriel a glance. “I’m the only adult here, okay?”

“You’re eighteen, you’re barely—”

“I’m the _only adult here,_ and I’m in charge. You have to _listen_ to me, you got it?”

Luce was stiff at Gabriel’s back. He said nothing, but from the look on Michael’s face, the smirk tugging the corners of his mouth, he had visibly backed down. Mike pulled the car keys out of his jeans pocket, bounced them in his palm.

“We’re gonna go up to the trail,” he said. “We’re gonna look for them ourselves.”

“Michael, it’s after midnight, we can’t all go.”

Mike shook his head. “We can’t leave Gabe and Raph, either. You guys wanna look for mom and dad too, don’t you?”

Raph rubbed his eye with the heel of his hand. “Yeah.”

“Gabe?”

Gabriel looked at Raph, who was glaring at him. Willing him to say yes— _don’t be a baby_ —to outvote Luce and make Michael happy. That’s what they were supposed to do when their parents were out. Keep Michael happy, keep Michael calm. When he got angry he got ugly. Not rough, never too rough, but cold and sharp and nasty.

So Gabriel nodded.

—

Even bundled in a jacket, and even with the heater on, it was chilly in the car. Cold leather soaking through Gabriel’s pajama bottoms, puffs of cloud swirling from his lips. Hot air rattled out of the vents but it would be a while before they actually felt it in the backseat.

Raph was dozing against the window, but Gabriel couldn’t sleep. Not while Michael and Luce were arguing in the front seat—too quiet to make out, but so clearly angry in tone.

_Five. Six. Seven. Eight._

They were pulling up the mountain, a narrow dirt road winding up to the base of the hiking trail. Their parents’ favourite—so much so that they’d wanted one last trek before the snow fell. There was nothing to see but the first few feet of dim road ahead of them, lit yellow by headlights. Low branches scratched like witchfingers against the sides of the car, dragged squealing across the windows.

Raph slept. Luce and Michael whispered. Gabriel listened. They reached the base of the trail, a wider spread of dirt that doubled as a small parking lot, and Michael killed the engine, left the lights on. Popped open the glove compartment and drew out two carving knives and a flare gun.

“You and me can go out and look,” he told Luce, handing him one of the knives. “Raph and Gabe can stay in the car.”

“We can’t just _leave_ them here.”

“So we lock the doors! It’s too dangerous out there for them.”

Luce groaned. “Why’d you insist on _bringing_ them if—”

Raph stirred. The boys in the front seat were too caught up in each other to notice as their younger brother unbuckled his seatbelt, fumbled with the door handle. Gabriel tugged on Raph’s jacket sleeve.

“Stay in, Mike says it’s dangerous,” he whispered.

Raph pulled away. “Get off, Gabe, jus’ hafta pee…”

He slipped out, left the door ajar behind him. Gabriel undid his belt, shuffled closer to the window, pressed his face up to the glass to peer out into the dark. Mike and Luce were still hissing low at one another. Raph was a dim shape in the bushes, his back to the car.

A second shape, then. Pooling inky black out of the trees, a massive, amorphous silhouette standing right in front of Raph. Gabriel’s breath caught, and he reached for Michael. Squeaked as his palm hit carseat, carseat, and finally boy.

“Raph, what—?” Mike snapped over his shoulder. “Huh? Gabe, where’s Raph?”

Gabriel opened his mouth, but before he could speak the shadow moved. Blur, snatch, scream, and then Raphael was on the ground.

“Oh, _fuck!”_ Michael and Lucifer scrambled to get out of their belts, fumbled with the locks and doors and Raph was _screaming,_ sobbing as he clawed at the dirt, as the black thing dragged him into the bushes with a snarl.

Mike got out first, dashed into the trees with a flare in one hand and a knife in the other. Luce followed him, the both of them leaving their doors wide open, leaving Gabriel forgotten in the backseat.

Raph’s screams cut off.

The silence stretched out long. Gabriel curled pinkwhite fists against the leather, trembling and— _don’t be a baby, Gabe_ —trying not to cry.

_One. Two. Three._

There was a rustle, scrape of gravel, the phlegmy growl of something hungry. Gabriel whimpered, drew his knees up to his chest. Tried to shrink into himself as the _something_ out there took a long sniff.

_Four. Five. Six._

Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut. Creak of the car, screech of sharp on metal. Ugly shuffling drag and it was coming towards him. It knew he was there. It had to know.

_Seven. Eight. Nine._

Low chuckle, bubbly squeal against the window glass. Gabriel opened his eyes and turned his head to look.

_Ten._

The creature was shaped like a man. Black hollows for eyes, ashen skin crawling with maggots and decay. Teeth and gums rotten, lips peeled back in a skeletal grin. Mouth soaked in blood, red and fresh and glinting.

Raph’s blood.

For the first time since he was three, Gabriel peed his pants.

He heaved a sob as the _thing_ came in through Michael’s open door, crawled over the front seat and reached for him. He scrambled back against the seat, as far as he could go, reaching for the door handle. Fingers too damp, shaking too hard for him to find purchase. He was soaked—tears blurring his vision, sweat beading, warm piss trickling down his pant leg. And the creature’s hand circled round his shin, sticky with blood and rot.

It dug cracked nails into his flesh, hard enough to bite but not enough to break. Gabriel choked on a scream as the creature pulled him slow. Grinning. Somehow _laughing_ without a sound.

Gabriel let it drag him almost out the door, then grabbed the carseat and refused to let go. The creature snarled, tugged, tore ribbons of red and sharp pain down his shin and held fast to his ankle. Had him out of the car and crashing into the dirt with one swift yank. Gabriel cried out, got a mouthful of dust, teeth and tongue dragging through the gravel as the awful thing picked up speed and _no, no, no—_

Then a crack like thunder and his foot thudded to the ground.

The creature screamed, shrill and inhuman, and out of the corner of his eye Gabriel saw a blaze of light. He couldn’t turn, was shaking too hard to move. Closed his eyes, closed his mouth and tasted dirt and bile and blood.

A long moment of nothing as the screams faded. Warm hands on him, arms pulling him close to a chest soft and big and safe.

“Gabe, oh God, Gabriel…”

Luce was shaking too.

—

His brothers took him home. Cleaned him up, bandaged him, got him in clean clothes. They ignored him as he explained that it was an _accident,_ he hadn’t meant to pee himself. He’d tried to stop Raph from leaving the car. It wasn’t his fault, it _wasn’t._

“Our fingerprints are up there, on Raph’s bo—on Raph, ” Mike was saying as he stuffed clothes in a duffel bag. “Our flare gun went off. And there’s nothing left of that monster, we have no _proof.”_

“You were right,” was all Luce said.

Gabriel barely registered what was happening as he was shoved back in the car. Alongside bags and suitcases haphazardly packed, his school knapsack filled with granola bars and emergency money. He didn’t bother asking why Michael didn’t lock the door before he left the house, or why Lucifer was crying.

He fell asleep as dawn broke, and reached out for a brother who was no longer there.

**Author's Note:**

> (written by Miniatures)
> 
> The origin story of the Novak hunter brothers. Or: I break my own heart because OH GOD THEY'RE JUST BABIES.
> 
> I specified Michael and Lucifer's ages in-text, but for reference (and extra pain) Gabe is 8, and Raph was 11.


End file.
